The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1887-05-12
whom was largely entrusted to an or
ganization of volunteer nurses, OF which
Miss Pickens was q member.
LOVE IN A HOSPITAL

1904 LleutendHt AHuIc uC AsOSuCACs
of the first South Carolina Regiment
OF Artillery. command ofwhich Beau
regard said that it had not its superior
in any army in the world. L had held
Fort Sumter during the terrific fire that
crumbled the great stone walls into
fragments and piece Of bursting shell
had struck de Rochelle down with what
was seemingly mortal wound. He
was removed to hospital under the
direction ofSurgeon Jeffery. Of the Con-
federate service. and for the many
DAYS in which he lay there nearer death
than conscious life Miss Pickens was
his devoted attendant. There had been
no previous acquaintanceship between
the beautiful nurse and her gallant
patient and she had merely gone to his
bedside in the first instance as she
might have gone to that of any other
suffering soldier; but he owed his life to
her unflagging care, and when he had
passed the point Of danger gratitude
was mingled with warmer sentiment.
The by-play Of love ran on unchecked
in the fierce theatre of war, and they
became pledged to marry. They were
Of equal social rank, Lieutenant de Ro-
chelle having a lineage that reached the
Huguenot settlement of the state.
The marriage was appointed for the
Christmas eve Of 1864, in the gloom
that then overshadowed the bcleaguered
town. It was sombre holiday season
for the people driven from their shatter-
ed homes by the steady rain Of shot and
shell, nearly exhausted Of the common.
est necessaries Of life and shrouded in
mourning for lost members of every
household.
The Pickens family mansion was
within the line Of fire from the Federal
batteries. and months previously had
been abandoned. Miss Pickens had
been received into the residence of her
relative, General Rhett, which was sup
posed to be beyond the range Of their
guns, and had so far escaped being
hit by any of the monstrous projectiles
that flew into the city. On Christmas
eve the wedding party were assembled
in the parlor Of the Rhett mansion. one
Of the large and handsome houses 50
common on all the river frontage Of
old Charleston. Divested Of its costly
and elaborate decorations that had gone
to swell this or that Confederate fund,
the great room looked barren, chilly and
forbidding. Candles were almost an
unattainable luxury then-the city gas
works had long been wrecked by ex.
ploding shells-and some homemade
device of illumination only lit up The
little space occupied by the lover and
bride and clergyman.
Save for the brilliant uniform of the
soldier and the white robes of the prizes,
of the Episcopal Church, there seemed
no color or warmth in the apartment
Finery appropriate to the wedding cere
monies Of distinguished people was MOI
to be found in the Confederacy, and
while the dozen of guests were men and
women who had known the opulent ant
luxurious life of good society in thu
in the ante-bellum day of Charleston
they were now reduced to homespuns
and coarse cottons. With the harsl
discordance of the bombardment filling
their ears, and with the knowledge
that the bridegroom must at once qui
his wifc's side for service with his com
mand, sense of apprehension AM
sorrow brooded over the assemblage
The most serene and self-possessed .
all present, the newspaper report
said, was Miss Pickens, whose stated,
beauty was heightened by contrast witt
the surroundings.
WHEN THE SHELL BURST.
The clergyman voice broke the 81
lence of the group with the reading 0
the marriage form. and he had JUS
reached the interrogatories when thu
horrible roar OF a shell vastly loude
than those flying over the distant sec
tons of the city drowned every othe
sound. 1t came from an advanced
battery that General Foster had re
Gently opened well up on the inner sid'
of Morris Island and within four
mile range of the Rhett residence. Tn
200 pounds Of iron loaded with incen
diary material described a trajector,
that ended npon the roof Of the house
from whence it crushed through tn
intermediate floors and burst in tn
midst Of the wedding party.
When the sitting smoke had cleare'
away and men could breathe free from
the suffocating fumes of the powder
the apartments-its walls and ceiling
partly blown out. its furniture knocke'
into chips, blood spattered everywhere
fragments of human forms strewing tn
doors-was q scene of indescribabl
terror. Three of the wedding guest
mad been instantly killed, and not
person in the room had escaped injur
of some sort. Lieutenant de Rochell
and the clergyman were only slight
hurt, but Miss Pickens was prostrat
and saturated with the blood tina
streamed from where her shoulder ha
been cruelty torn by fragment OF tn
shell. A surgeon pronounced her dead
but when she waslaid upon couch sh
slightly revived and endeavored to speal
each heave of her breast causing tn
blood to flow in an increasing current
De Rochelle approached her side an
placed his ear close to the liE
that were painfully struggling to utte
Ineligible words. Her eyes sougi
the clergyman with look that begge
him to draw nigh. He did 50, and d
Rochelle, catching as by inspiratio
her meaning, asked her If she woul
have of the remainder of th
ceremony performed before she diet
Again she made the effort to speak an
failed, and the surgeon warned thel
that her life was ebbing fast; but tt
consent which she could not voice foun
expression in an infection of the heat
i Then the clergyman. with his rof
stained from the wound he had receive.
stood over the couch of the dying won
an, whose hand had sought that of h.
lover. and proceeded with the readin
of the holy ritual in the apartment fro